Mechanical musical instrument.



A. P, GUSTAFSON.. MECHANICAL MUSICAL, INSTRUMENT.

APPLICATION IILED DEC. 11, 1911.

Patented Dec. 17,1912;

2 SHEETS-SHEET 1.

A. P. GUSTAFSON. MECHANICAL MUSICAL INSTRUMENT APPLICATION FILED DBO. 11,1911.

Patented 'Dec. 17, 1912,

' 2 SHEETSSHEET 2] HMlImIl-U QE; l

UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE.

ADOLPH P. GUSTAFSON, OF CHICAGO, ILLINOIS, ASSIGNOR TO M. SCHULZ 00., OF CHICAGO, ILLINOIS.

MECHANICAL MUSICAL INSTRUMENT.

Specification of Letters Patent.

Patented Dec. 17,1912.

Application filed December 11, 1911. Serial No. 684,998.

To all whom, it may concern:

Be it known that I, Anonrn P. Gusrsrson, a citizen of the United States, residing at Chicago, in the county of Cook and State of Illinois, have invented a certain new and useful Improvement in Mechanical Musical Instruments, of which the following is a full, clear, concise, and exact description, reference being had to the accompanying drawings, forming a part of this specification.

My invention relates to piano actions, and more particularly to actions for-automatic piano players.

Prominent objects of my invent-ion are to provide a simple, practical and elfective instrument of the class specified, to arrange to produce substantially uniform blows on the part of. the various striking mechanisms of the instrument, and to provide simple and effective mechanism for accomplishing that purpose; and to obtain the foregoing and other desirable and useful results in a simple and expeditious manner. 7

In the arrangement hereinafter set fortn for carrying out my invention, I employ an adjustable bar or member. and means by which it limits or equalizes the extent of movement on the part of the pneumatic actuating mechanism.

I will explain my invention more in detail by reference to the accompanying draW ings, in which- ..Figure 1 is an end section, showing a piano action and my invention applied thereto; Fig. 2 is a section on line 2-2 of Fig. 1; Fig. 3 is a detail perspective of the adjustable bar showing it held in place, and

' Fig. 4: is a perspective of one of the abutment blocks, attached to the sticker. Referring more particularly to the drawings, I show the usual piano action 1, having the usual stickers or sticker fingers 2-2, upon which I mount blocks 3 3 3 which serve as stops to limit the upward movement of the sticker 2. These blocks 33*-3 are of different length to accommodate the setting of the neumatics A: in rows, and they have their uppermost faces in alinement with each other, but have their lowermost faces offset or staggered so as to compensate for the offset or staggered position of the pneumatics 4 which engage said "blocks 3.3 3 through the medium of the 5 vision of means whereby it can be bodily raised or lowered, which conveniently consists of arms or clips 7 provided with slots 8 through which the screw Qpasses into the standards 10 of the. piano action. It will thus be seen that by loosening the screws 9 the bar can be either raised or lowered according to the adjustment required.

It will be evident that after the blocks U 33*3 and the bar 6 have been positioned properly, to give the piano hammers the desired extent of throw, they will always have such a throw, and will not lbe changed by various factors, as for instance, the dropping of some of the pneumatic levers lower than others and so on.

It will further be evident that thiswill, in

no way affect the accentuation of a note or series of notes in accordance with the well known practice; Thus 1t will be obvlous that a s ngle. instrumentahty, such as the longitudinally extending bar, by acting as a stop or means for limiting the throw of a pluralit or all of the actions, makes an ex ceeding y simple construction, rendering unnecessary a large number of devices to accomplish this result, only one or a few being necessary for each action.

While I have heroin shown and described. one embodiment of my invention, it will obvious that modifications can be resorted to without. departing from the spirit of my invention. I

Vhat I claim and desire to secure by Letters Patent is: s

'1. The combination of a plurality of piano action units having stickers, a block attached to each of said stickers and running lengthwise thereof, said blocks having abutments at, each end, striking'pneumatics' for operating said stickers arranged in a plurality of tiers, said pneumatics having means for contacting with the abutment-s at the lower end of said blocks, and a horizontal bar mounted alongside of said stickers havin its sticker 2 provided with a block 3,

exten ing lengthwise of said sticker, having its upper and lower ends forming abutments and pneumatic means for actuating said piano action unit. a

3.'The combination of a series of piano action units having their stickers 2 provided with blocks 3, extending lengthwise of said stickers and having their upper and lower ends forming abutments, said blocks being of different lengths, and pneumatic means for actuating said piano action units.

4. The combination with the piano action units of a horizontally dis-posed bar 6, means for securing said bar in adjusted fixed position, blocks 33 ofdifiierent lengthaon the stickers of said piano action units, the upper ends of said blocks 3 being in alinement and adapted to engage said-bar and their lower ends being adapted to serve as abutments, and striking pneumatics arranged in rows one above the other and having their swinging members adapted to engage the lower ends of said blocks, 3.

5. The combination with the piano action units and with the strikin pneumatics 4 of blocks 3-3 mounted on the stickers of the piano action units adapted to engage said neumatics and a bar 6 to engage said blocks.

6. The combination with reciprocating members provided with blocks 3, and a bar 6 extended across said members and adapted to engagesaid blocks 3, the bar 6 being above the blocks 3 and engaging their upper ends, and pn'euniatics having their swinging members provided with means for engaging the lower ends of the blocks 3. i

- 7. The combination with a series of strik-a ing pneuma-tics arranged in rows one above the other, of a series of reciprocating striking members adapted to be actuated by'said pneumatics,:blocks 3 carried by said reciprocatin imembers and having their lower ends a apted to engage said striking pneumatics, said blocks being of different lengths to accommodate the different rows of pneumatics, a horizontally disposed bar 6 extended across said reciprocating members and adapted to engage the upper ends of said blocks 3, and means for securing .said bar in adjusted fixed position.

8. The combination with a series, or

' stickers in a piano action, of blocks attached to said stickers having abutments at each end, an adjustable bar normally fixed in positi'o'n mounted above the abutments at one end of saidqblocks, and pneumatically operating devices adapted to contact with the of said blocks to abutments at the other end actuate said stickers.

In witness'whereof, I hereunto subscribe my name this 2nd day of December, A. D

ADQLPHP. GUSTAFSON. Witnesses:

- A. LYDA Jones,

A. S. DENNISON. 

